Thursday, August 01, 2013

Heartbreaking photo in La Prensa this week of devastated campesinos who had showed up in Santa Rosa de Copan expecting to start a trip that would end with legit Canadian jobs.

The best way to change your future in Honduras is to find a way to work in North America for a few years. You can send money home and save enough to buy some land or start a little business. (The second fastest way to change your future, I suppose, is the drug transport business.)

But when the would-be migrant workers showed up to board the buses that were to take them to the Tegucigalpa airport, they found out they had been ripped off. There were no buses, no waiting jobs picking apples and grapes. The office was empty.

The scam was elaborate. Radio stations ran ads about the job program, including here in Copan Ruinas. (I didn’t hear them.) The crooks had a good story about having already placed 19,000 workers. They had an office, and answered any queries or calls. They gave official receipts and itineraries. (And most of the victims were illiterate, or barely literate, and had no way to check the legitimacy.)

At the police station

Some 800 people paid about $500 each to get access to Canada. That’s a huge amount. Not only are their dreams shattered, but their lives in Honduras have been dealt a huge blow.

José Antonio Arita, a farmer in Corquín, a remote village in the hills, told La Prensa he rushed to the job office in Santa Rosa when he heard about the opportunity. He sold his chain saw to help cover the cost. No saw means no income from selling firewood.

Jose Antonio Ramirez and his brother Hugo René both lost all their savings. The fact the offer was on the radio and the nice, fully staffed office convinced them the opportunity was real.

Until they showed up, with small backpacks of clothes and keepsakes, and found there were no buses and the office was locked up.

There are lots of arguments about temporary foreign workers in Canada, some legitimate, some not. About 1,200 Hondurans are currently in the country as temporary workers, doing jobs in the meatpacking plants and the like.

But the story is a good reminder of how desperate Hondurans are for better lives, and how easily Canada could help simply by giving them a chance to work for a couple of years.

Like the “ninis” in Honduras, young people who “ni trabaja ni estudia” - neither work nor go to school.

About 24 per cent of Hondurans between 12 and 24 aren’t in school or working, according to the latest numbers. That’s a problem on many levels. Many youths with nothing to do get into trouble - gangs or petty crime or early, ill-advised relationships. (About 25 per cent of births are to women, or girls, under 18.)

And the country’s future prospects are blighted when such a huge portion of the population lack education and opportunity. Some 582,000 youths are in the ‘nini’ camp.

A government official focused on the economic consequences - without a skilled or educated population, Honduras won’t move toward greater prosperity.

The political and social damage is just as significant. Educated people, literate, numerate and with problem-solving skills, are much more likely and able to hold government to account, participate in political life and bring social change to a country that badly needs it.

Not that the Honduran school system is producing people with those skills. It’s accepted that the education system is dismal. Schools are overcrowded and often in disrepair, teachers poorly qualified, the curriculum is outmoded and basic supplies are lacking. The education ministry can’t pay teachers on time or manage the system. (It has now been decreed that all students will learn English, ignoring the fact that there are almost no teachers capable of providing the instruction.)

It’s not just anecdotal. The Human Sciences Research Council assessed math and science skills knowledge in 45 countries, using Grade 8 students in almost all countries and Grade 9 students in Honduras.

Honduras was in the bottom three countries, with South Africa and Botswana. In the U.S., 68 per cent of Grade 8 students reached at least the intermediate level in math and science. In Chile, 23 per cent met the standard.

In Honduras, only four per cent. Only two students in a class of 50 reached the intermediate level in skills fundamental to competence in today’s world.

The country claims a literacy rate of 80 per cent, but in Copan Ruinas the only store that sells books offers a handful of titles aimed at tourists. Bodega Gloria put in a small magazine rack about six weeks ago, the first in town. People might be able to read, but they don’t.

The poor educational quality is probably one reason kids don’t go to school. Some families want children to help around the home or work or look after younger siblings. And it’s hard to make an argument that education opens the door to economic opportunity when jobs are so scarce.

Education is impossible for many children. Rural coverage is scarce and transportation - except on foot - non-existent. Only 15 per cent of rural students have access to education beyond Grade 9; for many Grade 6 is the highest level practically possible. About 10 per cent of the school-age population has no access at all, according to a 2010 study by the Honduran Commission of Human Rights.

And fees and strange extra charges - despite the fact that education is supposed to be free - are huge barriers for poor families. Uniforms, for example, are mandatory, and kids whose families can’t afford them stay home. There are levies for school maintenance and supplies and graduation ceremonies - even from kindergarten. Grade 6 grad fees can add up to $50; about 50 per cent of Hondurans live in extreme poverty and a wage of $6 a day isn’t bad.

That also means that many families have to choose one child to attend school, while brothers and sisters stay home, or quit early.

A generation ago, the nonfunctioning education system mattered less. Beyond some agricultural exports, Honduras was a closed economy. People stayed in their villages and practised subsistence farming.

Honduras, for better or worse, is part of an international economy today. Subsistence agriculture can’t provide for a larger population (and is seriously threatened by climate change, with projections of 30-per-cent corn crop losses in some regions within a decade).

About 582,000 ninis in Honduras equals a huge wasted opportunity, and a potentially destructive force.

The country has a big portfolio of problems.

But fixing the education system, and providing real access, need to be at the top of the list. Unless today's kids get a decent education, the country's future is bleaker than it needs to be.